Doctor Who Club of Australia

[ADAMK]

What do people make of this (Season 22) 1985 story written by Philip Martin?

This is the analysis from the official BBC website (WARNING! SPOILERS): http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/vengeancevaros/analysis.shtml

[Greg]

Arguably the best story of this season.

The plotline itself - which looks at issues around desentisation to violence due to depiction in teh nedia, media manipulation of both the people and their elected representatives, and the control of society by unelected people with nothing but their own self-interest to guide them - is good, although some of the execution isn't.

The stories faults tend to lie with Eric Saward's desire to increase the amount of violence in Who, including the Doctor's rather cavalier farewell to the people who died in teh acid pool, and running multiple poltlines for padding - the whole plot with Quillam does little to advance the story and, seriously, what were they thinking when they added another scarred and masked villain so soon after the infinitely superior Sharaz Jek?

We also had the perennial unthreatening threats - the nappy-clad old age pensioner cannibals who are not even as frightening as the Myrka, and villainous henchmen driving vehicles that would barely keep pace witha snail.

Sil was interesting enough if a bit annoying. Had the camp and tinsel factors not been turned up to 11, and assuming Nabil Shiban is capable of a more subtle performance and was given better lines, he could have been a worthwhile villain - certainly one of the most memorable in Colin's TV reign.

Big marks to Martin Jarvis, who does as good a job as he can with the material he's given.

Aside from a decent script editor, what this story really lacked was the money to make it work. It was a pretty big scale story, so the minute amounts of space allowed for the sets only go to highlight how cheap it is.

For me, this is about as high in quality as the Colin Baker TV stories managed to climb.

[Davros]

This episode is running again ...grrr, why abc??

[meglos]

I don't mind this story, I just find it a bit hard to get into. The idea of the Planet's people being entertained by televised executions and the like has been done a few times before on Doctor Who has'nt it?

[Hiruma]

Personally Im off the view that the 6th Doctor was a little too violent. Either that or the writers couldnt pin him down. When he turned the laser on the guards I thought it was a huge blemish on the character. Previous doctors would of overloaded it or perhaps push it at the enemy to slow them down. This doctor seemed all too willing to just laser them.
I thnk the 7th Doctor went back towards being a nice person but Sil... that was an enemy well done. Ugly yet memorable.

[Wester]

I am very much indifferent on this one. Its not great, but its not the worst I have seen either. 6/10

[John Lucantonio]

Id say from what Iv seen of Colin Baker that he is sorely underrated. Admittedly the doctor is violent (knocking those gaurds into the vat of acid wasnt cool) and his clothes are awful, but these were decisions of the producer and script writers, not him. I quite enjoyed this, much to my surprise, for two main reasons. One being Colin Baker and the other being that green mining slug bloke whos name I have forgotten

[Theta Sigma]

In contrast to the previous story, the continuity-laden Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos has no continuity references apart from Peri mentioning Telos. Personally I quite like Vengeance on Varos and it was certainly not a bad choice to debut the Sixth Doctor era on DVD; it was definitely better than the Sixth Doctor release that followed it, The Two Doctors.
I quite like Jason Connery as Jondar.
Loved Arak and Etta as well as Sil. Sil is basically a predecessor of the Ferengi on Star Trek. Loved his pronunciation of "Governor" and his line of "lying liar" (as if there was any other kind of liar). Also loved his reaction of the invasion being cancelled and the high price asked by the Governor for zaiton-7.
Forbes Collins (Chief Officer) later played King John in Maid Marian and Her Merry Men.
Funny thing about the TARDIS manual is that if you look carefully when it first appeared it was actually blank.
Rondel looks like Jamie. Too bad he got killed off.
It was never explained what the IR squad mentioned by the Chief actually was or what the letters stood for.
If new viewers would look carefully the Doctor did not pushed that guy in the acid bath as it has been falsely perceived.

Vengeance on Varos would fit well as a Judge Dredd script.
Vengeance on Varos had a very 1984-feel to it and yet it was made in 1984 even though it was aired in 1985.
Nicola Bryant mentioned in the DVD commentary that during the making of this serial that her underwear got stolen.
Colin Baker and Jason Connery were almost hanged for real when it was discovered that the scafford was unstable.

Martin Jarvis (Governor) later worked with Colin Baker again on Doctor Who albeit on audio as a different character in the Big Finish play Jubilee released in 2003 where Jarvis got to play alongside his wife Rosalind Ayres.
Jarvis' appearances outside of Doctor Who included a guest stint in Space: Above and Beyond.

Stephen Yardley (Arak) makes a pleasant return to the series a decade after appearing as Sevrin in Genesis of the Daleks. One of Yardley's most recent appearances was in the first episode of Hex directed by The Long Game director Brian Grant.

The conclusion to Vengeance on Varos was screened on the ABC yesterday December 9 my birthday. Ironically I bought the DVD on the Doctor's birthday on November 23 in 2002.

[meglos]

[charlie]